Article

Building a Stronger DSAG

by Dr. Marco Lenck | SAPinsider

January 1, 2013

DSAG, has become the largest SAP user group worldwide and provides members with information on SAP product developments and new services. In this article, you’ll hear from DSAG’s new Chairman of the Board to learn more about DSAG’s goals and challenges for the future.

In September 2012, Dr. Marco Lenck took the reins as the new Chairman of the Board of the German-Speaking SAP User Group (DSAG). SAPinsider recently spoke with Lenck to learn more about his role and to get his perspective on what DSAG’s goals and challenges will be going forward.

Q: What types of roles in DSAG have you held in the past?

A: I’ve been on DSAG’s technology board for four years. This group is responsible for getting DSAG members the information and tools they need to evaluate and succeed with new technologies.1 I’ve also been part of the CIO Advisory Board, which channels the interests of DSAG’s IT decision makers.

Now, as DSAG’s Chairman of the Board, I represent over 2,700 companies from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, with more than 43,000 registered DSAG members. I act as the speaker of the DSAG board, a role that involves ensuring strategic alignment, developing the organization, and managing our relationship with SAP.

Q: As the new DSAG Chairman of the Board, what are some of your top goals?

A: DSAG has had some amazing accomplishments in past years. We’ve worked closely with SAP to pass along our feedback and requests and have seen great responses from SAP. I want to continue that relationship and grow it even further. This means adding more communication paths with SAP and involving even more DSAG members in our discussions.

Right now, much of our feedback to SAP is centered on the operational side of things, focusing on what features, functions, and support we’d like to see. We want to make sure strategic concerns, like the need for integrated processes, a convenient price structure, “light” implementation processes for new solutions, and improved user adoption also get plenty of attention. As part of this initiative, we are creating more strategy-focused workshops within the working groups.

Q: What are some of DSAG’s challenges going forward?

A: I think that one challenge will be balancing the need for continued support on existing systems and the need to innovate with new technologies. Right now, many of our members are very focused on finding ways to improve solution integrations and business processes. At the same time, SAP is coming out with and promoting many new innovations — around cloud, mobility, and in-memory, for instance. This theme of striking a balance was prominent at our 2012 DSAG Annual Congress and will likely continue to be a challenge for some time.

Q: Do you have advice that you’d like to share with DSAG members?

A: Get involved! DSAG’s slogan is “We for Us.” This means that all of DSAG’s members are working together to bring value to the organization — and to their own companies. The well of knowledge and experience that DSAG members can tap into from their colleagues is amazing. And the more we contribute to that well, the stronger DSAG becomes as an organization.

More from SAPinsider

Read this white paper and learn how a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach in your SAP landscape enables tax and IT professionals within retail companies to work cooperatively to simplify tax...

While the use of cloud-based solutions is on the rise, on-premise solutions remain a critical part of IT infrastructures. To help minimize the administrative burden of managing these hybrid environments,...